our last attempt with packaged bees proved to be, (NPI) a dismal failure.
within a week or so our bees had mostly died and the remainder swarmed off.
we were able to recapture them from a tree but they didn't stay for more than a few days.
this week we will be picking up two nucs with established hives with laying queens. our local keeper will also instruct us as to when & how we can transfer from the nuc combs to our top bar hive.

You might have been better getting in touch with one of our forum members, Patrick Thomas. I'm pretty sure he is in Florida and does a lot of bee colony removals..... cut outs and trap outs. He could probably have sorted you out with a top bar nucleus colony or two.

Anyway, good luck. I hope you have more success this time. For the majority of us it would be far too late in the season to consider buying a nuc but I guess your climate doesn't create such limitations.

will look patrick up.....though florida is a big state....if he isn't close it would be difficult to obtain much from him.
as for our climate here in florida it is sub tropical with mild winters nothing lasting more than a few cold snaps in jan-feb. but we are talking about central florida and southward. the pan handle and north central do get colder weather with the panhandle and counties near the georgia border having light snow every so often .

was a bit blind sided about it all. thought the colony could stay in the nuc for a time until they filled out all five frames. was told they needed to be put into something less confining ASAP. consequently we purchased a starter langstrom box with a few more frames. we were instructed to allow the hive to mature then transfer them to our bar hive......so now we ride on both sides of the street...langstrom /top bar LOL!
will be viewing youtube on transitioning to top bar...anyone care to share some tips about the transition phase feel free to share.
so far we have one failed package from last spring season...and about $650.00 investment on equipment, hives and bee's and nary a drop of golden elixir.

Seems a shame to get them all settled and then transfer the whole colony and end up with an empty Langstroth and however you do that it is a lot of faffing about when you could do a split into the TBH later that is easier.
Even using the end boards and just three bars to make a queen rearing hive so with a queen cell and a few cups full of young bees should work in the TBH.
Or collect a swarm in the season and shake them into the TBH that is the easiest option.

hello AndyC,
some potential methods there thanx for sharing. as a novice the phil chandler method seemed easiest to do. unless we misunderstood the video phil was transferring from the langstroth to the top bar because the hive was ready to split. phil just sets the hive onto the top bar, which has the bars cut out 3/8" on one side to allow bee space. we are all new at this bee stuff and inferred that the overcrowded hive would use the additional space to branch off to. presently we are just hoping this hive just two days old will mature enough to expand.
our last package bees was failure so we went with a nuc this time around from a local commercial keeper. at this moment queen cups and advanced stuff like that are still in the learning curve ....
cheers
gizmo

recently became aware of another technique for transferring a langstroth hive into a top bar.
the author of the article Les Crowder uses a top bar hive with a four inch hole cut in the center of the bottom, which he then places over a langstroth hive with the top removed. though the article didn't state but we suspect Les uses a piece of plywood placed over the langstroth hive with a hole of the same size cut into the center which will cover the hive end to end. then places the top bar centered over the hole in the plywood. this way the hive has protection from rain.
this technique allows the bees to go up into the new hive....as opposed to phil chandler method of bees going down....
guessing the decision for either one is the bees !

It may work.
I tried putting a nuc of bees under a TBH with an adaptor plate between them and six bars of space.
Left it for four weeks and no sign of wax building in the tbh.
Left it another four weeks and still no sign of building in the TBH so due to time constraints, caught the queen, cut out and wired some brood and stores into bars and shook them in.
Sorry to say IMHO you really are making this hard for yourself.
Your choice and good luck.

Another simpler option comes to mind although I have not tried it is to remove an outside frame or two from the nuc, make a gap in the centre and put top bars in there.
And keep doing that until all the frames have been replaced with natural comb then transfer them to the TBH.
Depending on the NUC and top bars you might need to rig up a special eke or some spacers to hold the bars and the nuc lid properly.

Conserving wild bees

Research suggests that bumble bee boxes have a very low success rate in actually attracting bees into them. We find that if you create an environment where first of all you can attract mice inside, such as a pile of stones, a drystone wall, paving slabs with intentionally made cavities underneath, this will increase the success rate.

Most bumble bee species need a dry space about the size a football, with a narrow entrance tunnel approximately 2cm in diameter and 20 cm long. Most species nest underground along the base of a linear feature such as a hedge or wall. Sites need to be sheltered and out of direct sunlight.